True Bad Nature of Apostates

[0:00] In America, we've become very aware of how devastating a terrorist can be among us.

[0:25] ! We've had lots of terrorist attacks. We were actually at peace on December 7, 1941, and 2,404 Americans were killed when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.

[0:52] On September 11, 2,977 Americans were killed when Arab terrorists attacked the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and crashed a commercial airliner in Pennsylvania while trying to reach a civilian target.

[1:12] As we speculate, it was either the Capitol or the White House. Thousands of our citizens have been murdered by terrorists.

[1:28] Countless lives changed by terrorists. And they live and they plot among law-abiding and usually unaware people.

[1:43] Of course, even Oklahomans have experienced terrorist attacks. In 1995, when the Murrah Building in Oklahoma City was destroyed by a white supremacist citizen of America, nearly 200 people were killed, including over 30 children in a daycare center run there at the Murrah Building.

[2:20] And the truck with the explosives was parked right below the window that had little cut-out hands and drawings of little kids.

[2:33] But by far, the deadliest terrorist attack occurred in the church thousands of years ago.

[2:50] And back some 1,900 years ago, Jude recognized, by inspiration of the Holy Spirit I might add, that terrorists had infiltrated the church with deadly results.

[3:11] He also realized that such terrorists were not a passing fad, but that they would plague the church for as long as the church existed on earth.

[3:29] Now, Jude had a name for these terrorists that were in the churches. He called them apostates. And he realized the immense danger that apostates pose to truth and to the purity of the church.

[3:54] I think this was one of the reasons the Holy Spirit, through the pen of Jude, had him write down inspired words, Jude 3, contend earnestly for the faith.

[4:12] We're to be contending. Nothing's changed. This is the 21st century. We still have terrorists in the church. And Jude said the challenge was to expose the terrorist apostates because they had crept in unnoticed.

[4:33] That's your most dangerous terrorist. Unnoticed. And the role of church leadership is to expose the apostate and root him out before he can inflict irreparable harm to the church.

[5:01] And dare I say this, once exposed, the apostate must be removed. Genuine repentance, and I mean, that would take a lot of convincing, I think, of a lot of people.

[5:20] They need to be removed. And the people exposed to apostate teaching must be identified to make sure that apostasy has not spread.

[5:39] Now, last week we did examine three major groups that can enter into apostasy.

[5:50] The first group we looked at was comprised of Israelites. After 407 years, they were delivered miraculously from the bondage and cruelty of Egypt only to murmur and complain against God and their new circumstances in the wilderness.

[6:20] And the second group that we looked at were angels that fell when Lucifer fell. He was the exalted angel and the highest in that time created being.

[6:39] Of course, we understand Jesus was not created. He's eternal. But the angels were there and Lucifer fell and took with him a third of the angelic host and they became demons to lead men astray into unbelief.

[7:03] And they're still with us. We still have them. The third group were Gentiles that rebelled against God's established order and engaged in deviant sexual practices and those involved homosexual and lesbian behavior.

[7:22] This evening, we're going to examine apostates and how they have impacted God's world over the centuries and millennia.

[7:38] And we'll probably carry this over to next week also. To expose the dangerous apostates among the true church, it was necessary to know what they look like.

[7:56] And the best way to do that, and perhaps the only way, was by knowing the characteristics of the apostates' nature.

[8:07] They didn't go around with signs. You know, I'm your new apostate on the church role. But know what their characteristics are.

[8:19] And Jude's going to help us out. This is Jude verses 8 to 10. Yet in the same way, these men also by dreaming defile the flesh.

[8:38] And reject authority. And revile angelic majesties. But Michael, the archangel, when he disputed with the devil and argued about the body of Moses, did not dare pronounce against him a railing judgment.

[9:04] Instead, what Michael did, he said this. You memorize this, guys. It'll come in handy someday.

[9:15] The Lord rebuke you. But these men revile the things which they do not understand, and the things that you know, like instinct, like unreasoning animals.

[9:29] And by these things, they are destroyed. So false teachers, even in our day, put a lot of stock in dreams.

[9:43] They talk about it from their pulpits. They believe that they're authoritative and they receive new revelation from God.

[9:55] At least one in this community had at least one at one time, I don't know if he's still there, they had on staff a paid dream interpreter.

[10:08] And you'd go to him, he had an office, you'd go to him, and you'd tell him, I had this dream last night. I had a good friend, his wife was into that. These new truths are really nothing more than lies and distortions designed to lead people astray.

[10:32] In using such devices as dreams and visions, the apostates are able to substitute their own counterfeit authority over that of Scripture and godly leadership.

[10:52] And part of the pattern of substituting dreams for revelation is the use of the imagination.

[11:05] Apostates are able to do this at will. First of all, they're able to do it because they've already rejected the Word of God. They've rejected God's Word as the sole ground of truth.

[11:21] And we must remember that behind the apostate's thought process is a mind that's been taken captive by Satan and by demons.

[11:34] in the Old Testament, the concept of a dreamer was very often associated with false prophets.

[11:47] And Moses warned about this. Very smart guy. Deuteronomy chapter 13, first five verses, says, if a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder and the sign or the wonder comes true concerning which he spoke to you saying, let us go after other gods, small g by the way, whom you have not known.

[12:24] and let us serve them. And Moses goes ahead and he says, don't listen to the words of that prophet or the dreamer of dreams.

[12:40] For the Lord your God is testing you to find out if you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, you shall follow the Lord your God and fear Him and you shall keep His commandments, listen to His voice, serve Him and cling to Him.

[13:11] But the prophet or dreamer of dreams, they had a stern punishment, shall be put to death. I'd say that's stern.

[13:21] put Him to death because He has counseled rebellion against the Lord your God who brought you from the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of slavery to seduce you from the way in which the Lord your God commanded you to walk.

[13:45] so you shall purge the evil from among you. The apostle Paul had this to say in Colossians chapter 2 verses 18 and 19, verse 18 and 19, verse 18 and 19, let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self-abasement and the worship of angels, taking his stand on visions he has seen, inflated without cause by his fleshly mind and not holding fast to the head from whom the entire body being supplied and held together by the joints and ligaments grows with a growth which is from God.

[14:39] So Jude tells us that apostates are false dreamers and they infiltrate the church with their lies.

[14:53] And then he goes on, Jude goes on to outline three characteristics of their true nature.

[15:08] In the second part of Jude, Jude says this. He talks about their immorality. And he says there, they defile the flesh.

[15:22] The word flesh in the original language of Greek means to pollute, contaminate, soil, or corrupt.

[15:35] In context, it is referring to a moral or physical defilement connected to sexual sin. And one common factor among apostate teachers and preachers is their immorality.

[15:52] And we've all been exposed to that through the magic of television and the internet. And eventually their immorality will come to the surface.

[16:06] And we live in a day when such immorality or immoral behavior has plagued the church. And of course, in our day, such failures are spread across television and the internet at the speed of light.

[16:26] Literally, at the speed of light. I remember that one of the first high-profile pastors pastors to be exposed as an apostate in our day was Jim Baker.

[16:45] He hosted the PTL Club. Praise the Lord. PTL. Along with his wife, Tammy Faye Baker. Through his ministry, he met a woman, young woman, whom he raped.

[17:09] And then she demanded hush money or she would expose him. And by then, he built that big palace back east and he had much to lose.

[17:24] So he began to steal money and a lot of money from the PTL organization to pay her hush money.

[17:37] He didn't want to be exposed. Couldn't afford it. And this is one of the chief problems of an apostate. They don't have anything with which to restrain the flesh and its immoral appetites.

[17:58] And they are the ones who live in the passions of their lust. And Jude explained their problem later in his letter when we get to Jude verse 19 probably in three years.

[18:17] But he explained their problem. He said apostates are devoid of the spirit. They don't have the spirit of God like we do I hope for us.

[18:36] Absent the Holy Spirit there is no ammunition to control the fleshly appetite of the apostates. And they indulge in the flesh.

[18:51] Peter told us that in 2 Peter chapter 2 verse 10. Such men are free to indulge the flesh in its corrupt desires.

[19:04] And it's really only a matter of time before such fleshly desires come to the surface and manifest itself in ways that are totally destructive to the fellowship of the church.

[19:24] So the first thing that comes to the surface among apostates is their immorality. authority. The second thing that comes to light is their insubordination.

[19:42] That's also in Jude verse 8 but just a little bit further to the right and they reject authority.

[19:54] They don't want anyone to have authority over them. Our passage makes this abundantly clear. the apostates reject authority.

[20:09] And this is especially true when it comes to church authority. An apostate by its very definition is one who rejects the lordship of Christ.

[20:24] And I'm amazed the last 10-15 years we went through a tremendous fight over the lordship controversy. where's the controversy?

[20:37] And people would say well you know he's my savior but later I'll make him my lord. You don't make Jesus anything. I don't. He is lord. He is lord.

[20:49] anyone in love with their own immorality will naturally reject authority they don't want anyone over them and this is especially true when it comes to church authority and we've seen in recent days that one guy down in the Dallas, Robert, I can't think of his last name he was having an affair with like a 14 year old girl in the church I would talk to him if that was my granddaughter but they reject authority especially church authority especially an apostate by its very definition is one who rejects the lordship of Christ and they will have no one to rule over them but here is the real danger of the apostate they pull all this off very subtly they engender themselves to people in the congregation unfortunately they don't announce to the church that oh by the way I'm the new apostate on the scene and that's why they're able to creep in unaware and Jesus himself had to deal with such men when he was on earth note how the lord refers to them

[22:22] Matthew 23 verses 27 to 28 woe to you scribes and pharisees hypocrites for you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful but inside they are full of dead men's bones in all uncleanness so you too outwardly appear righteous to men but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness Jesus says here that apostates are pretty on the outside but once inside they spread disease and corruption so apostates can be known because of their immorality and their insubordination when I was in Egypt we were out driving by a huge cemetery

[23:33] I mean the cemetery was at least half as big as Bartlesville and they built out of stone little houses above the corpse he's in the ground and the family would move in there they'd live in that thing I don't think Diane's going to do that when I pass she hadn't given any indications of that so they're known by their immorality and their insubordination but they're also known for their irreverence the last part of Jude 8 through verse 10 they revile angelic majesties but Michael the archangel when he did I'm reading this we've already read this once the archangel when he disputed with the devil and argued about the body of Moses did not pronounce against him a railing judgment but said the Lord rebuke you boy that's some ammunition there the Lord rebuke you but these men revile the things which they do not understand the things which they know by instinct like unreasoning animals by these things they are destroyed years ago a long time before some of you in this room were even born

[24:59] I am watching a service out of Virginia and they were huge on rebuking the devil and it suddenly dawned on me they never once mentioned Jesus in this whole service but they rebuked the devil the whole service was that and we're probably not too familiar with the phrase concerning the reviling evangelic majesties the word revile means to blaspheme the holy angels who did not fall with Satan have been devoted and still are devoted to God's holy glory and they've always played a special role in establishing God's moral order among humans angels for instance communicated

[26:01] God's law and angels will be involved in the judgment of the wicked at the end of the age and by their conduct apostates blaspheme holy angels and through them they blaspheme God apostates can't get to God so they get to those who serve him after Lucifer fell and we know he became Satan God worked through Michael that was his most powerful angel and he was referred to as the protector well what did he protect well God's people and Michael is a wonderful display of angelic wisdom that did not dispute with

[27:07] Satan over the body of Moses he just merely called on God to rebuke him and I think that's a wonderful lesson for the modern church because we have churches that do rebuking ministries there's no warrant in scripture to do that he's powerful being Satan but he's nothing compared to Christ let Jesus fight your battles let the Lord fight them let the Lord Jesus do the rebuking and we have no power over Satan only the Lord has that power and it's infinite we spend our time reverencing and praising God and his son and we let him handle

[28:08] Satan and she tells us in here that apostates are like unreasoning animals like animals these apostates operate by unholy instinct apostates can put on airs as they teach but in the end they're like brute animals devoid of reasoning and operating by instinct and they're fools and in the end will be destroyed by their own lying and deceiving heresies and they bring judgment on themselves and we've witnessed in the last few years pastors that have fallen from their pulpits and they won't be back in that pulpit one high profile was Ravi

[29:12] Zacharias and he was a brilliant guy you notice that he knew more philosophy than anything he was a philosopher but he also liked to go to massage parlors after the service and he fell the other which pained me because I've met him was Steve Lawson and was carrying on with a woman considerably his junior Steve's my age and the woman was 28 maybe and her dad caught him and he went to Steve and he said you can expose yourself or I will expose you take your choice of course he was exposed and I'll tell you he was a great preacher and MacArthur he worked for John immediately cut him loose worked with

[30:16] R.C. Sproul immediately cut him loose it was a great sadness and all that had to do with sexual sins you know I heard Dr.

[30:30] MacArthur tell this a few years ago I don't know if this applies to apostates or not but this young pastor had graduated from seminary in California and he received a call from a small church out there and the only other employee in this tiny little church was a very attractive and very married church secretary who was about 25 years senior to this young pastor right out of seminary and they worked together all day in a building smaller than this building much smaller and were in close quarters and one thing led to another and they began to have a sexual affair and they were caught and the young pastor was put out of ministry the church released him and he was put out he went to Dr.

[31:50] MacArthur bared his soul and he said to John he said do you think I can ever preach again and John's response was quite instructive he said I think you get one shot at that and if you violate your call your call of God to your ministry in a moral or sexual failure it's over for you it's done and he was preaching this message in the seminary with hundreds of seminary men wanting to meet preachers and he said this and he told the young man this we all hang by a very thin thread and if that thread is ever snapped it's over and the young pastor's response to Dr.

[33:02] MacArthur was interesting he said to John but nobody knows who I am I've never preached to over a hundred people nobody knows who I am and John said but God knows who you are that spoke volumes the only other one I would bring up some of you guys might have gone to the Steve Farrar meeting in Tulsa I was there we had several guys from Highland that went this was years ago Steve wrote several books and probably the most famous was Point Man great book Steve died a few years ago just broke my heart but Steve was out of ministry he removed himself from the pulpit because he was intently writing these books which were very successful but it takes a while for the paycheck to catch up so he was hurting financially his family was hurting his wife took a job and he finally told her he said look

[34:17] I've got to go back to work or I'm putting you all in harm's way well a church in California northern California heard that he was interested in preaching again he's a great preacher I heard him several times and this church called him to come out and preach a series of messages for a week and then they would meet and if everyone was in agreement they'd call him to that church so the associate pastor picked him up down around LA somewhere they got a lot of airports down there he picked him up going to take him to this church some three and a half hours north so they just started out and Steve says to this pastor said what do you do with the church and he said I'm a counselor I have a degree in it

[35:18] I counsel people in our church he said well that's wonderful he said are you counseling one right now he said yeah matter of fact I am we have an airline stewardess in our church that's in the midst of a divorce with her husband it's been really tough on her and I've been counseling her and in fact he said we spent last weekend at a resort she and I went to a resort for people that are getting divorces and I went with her and Steve who was out of work said you went with this woman in your church yeah yeah he said did you sleep together and he says I can't believe you'd ask me something like that of course not love love so then Steve says have you ever kissed her and there was silence finally this counselor says well not lovingly what does that mean he said not lovingly and

[36:40] Steve says hey that U-turn exit there yeah he said take that what we got three hours to go no no get off right there hurry up you're going to miss it so he gets off and all of a sudden he's made a U-turn he said where are we going and Steve said take me back to the airport your church is going to learn all this and they're going to split and you'll start rebuilding with 20 members and you'll be out and I can't put my family through that and I won't boy that he made it just fine God took care of him